James Franco's The Garden of Last Days, which he will direct and star in, has cast Emilia Clarke (DAENERYS MOTHERF*CKING TARGARYEN). Clarke will play a stripper who brings her toddler to work.

Really? Really. You go from Mother of Dragons and leader of a huge army of men in a patriarchal society to a stripper? This is such a downgrade that it makes me want to punch a baby Ewok. Please enjoy my favorite photo of Clarke.

On the other hand, the movie that Franco is directing comes from source material provided by Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog) whose about as literary as you can get, although he's also sociopathically serious. I'm as certain this is another one of Franco's attempts to be an artiste, as I'm certain that there will be nothing sexy about Emilia Clarke's stripper. It could be a horrible failure for Franco, or it could be a low-budget movie that allows Clarke to demonstrate range.

Here's the logline:

The film, set in present day New York, will tell three interwoven stories: "a stripper out of options who brings her 3-year-old daughter to work; an angry, lonely man who gets thrown out of the club; and a foreigner with an endless supply of cash on the brink of committing a terrifying act." Production is set to begin July 8 in New York.

Jodi Smith is the Associate Trade News Editor at Pajiba. You can email her or follow her on Twitter.